Geek, you say you are re-reading She's Come Undone. Have you read I Know This Much Is True?

I read She's Come Undone first, and my goodness I hated that book. I mean I absolutley loathed the thing. I will spare you my rantings here, but suffice it to say, I was NOT a Wally Lamb fan. Then a friend convinced me to read I Know This Much Is True, and I had to eat my words. It was a brilliantly moving book that I adored from the very beginning to the very end.

Just curious to see what you thought since you liked his first book.

06-08-2007, 02:30 PM

geek the girl

Re: What's on your summer reading list?

Quote:

Originally Posted by remote_goddess;2434055;

Geek, you say you are re-reading She's Come Undone. Have you read I Know This Much Is True?

I read She's Come Undone first, and my goodness I hated that book. I mean I absolutley loathed the thing. I will spare you my rantings here, but suffice it to say, I was NOT a Wally Lamb fan. Then a friend convinced me to read I Know This Much Is True, and I had to eat my words. It was a brilliantly moving book that I adored from the very beginning to the very end.

Just curious to see what you thought since you liked his first book.

You know, I think this might be the first time we don't agree, remote_goddess. :lol I've read both Wally Lamb's novels (will there be a third?) and enjoyed them, although if I have to pick just one, it would have to be I Know This Much Is True. I read it last summer and like you, I was incredibly moved by it. I love the fact that it's over 900 pages long - I never wanted it to end, so each page was a blessing. It's been ages since I read She's Come Undone so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but I do remember that I liked it - enough to re-read it. Once I'm done, I'll be very interested in your comments. Any author that can cause super-strong emotions, be it positive and negative, must be doing something right.

06-08-2007, 03:03 PM

DesertRose

Re: What's on your summer reading list?

I'm currently reading I know this much is true and I love it. 900 pages seemed so long at first, but I'm half way through and I'm just enjoying the ride. I'll be curious to hear both your impressions on She's come undone.

06-08-2007, 03:11 PM

remote_goddess

Re: What's on your summer reading list?

Quote:

Originally Posted by geek the girl;2434219;

Any author that can cause super-strong emotions, be it positive and negative, must be doing something right.

I know what you mean. After I finished the second book, I wondered how I could love one so much yet have such a strong dislike for the other... I stopped blaming it on poor writing skills and decided it was the subject matter and the characters/crises. I'll tell you now that my basic problem with the book was that I really didn't like the main character at all. I mean, really didn't like is putting it mildly. We'll talk more after you re-read it.

06-11-2007, 10:33 PM

katgib13

Re: What's on your summer reading list?

Quote:

What's on your summer reading list?

Hmmm, nothing in particular. The new Stephanie Plum (Janet Evanovich) book comes out this month and then Harry Potter. Other than that....I have none on my list. While I was in school, I didn't have much time to read, so I didn't visit the library at all. Now, I have free time, I've been going to the library every week and just perusing titles until something jumps out at me. I've been looking in the regular section and the new book section. I figure there are enough books that I won't have any trouble finding something to read this summer. :lol

Every summer our library has a summer reading program. They have different guidelines and activities for each age group. My youngest doesn't read yet, so for him, I have to read to him. For every 10 minutes, we put a sticker on this chart. When we reach 6 stickers, he gets to take the chart to the library and pick out a prize. Anything from suckers, stickers to small toys like Jacks, jumpropes, bouncy balls....just little stuff. He loves to be read to, so he is enjoying it. As am I. It's cuddle time for me! For the adults, we have a calendar with different genre's. When we've read a book for each listed genre, (We have to note the title and author and number of pages on the calendar) then we get our name put into a drawing. I think they usually have about 10-15 winners. The prizes are t-shirts, tote bags and stuff like that. We do it every summer.

06-12-2007, 09:03 AM

CCL

Re: What's on your summer reading list?

Quote:

Originally Posted by katgib13;2437385;

Hmmm, nothing in particular. The new Stephanie Plum (Janet Evanovich) book comes out this month

I have that on my list, too. I don't know why as I've found the last couple of books so aggravating (particularly the whole Ranger, Morelli, Ranger, Morelli rigamarole- pick one, you fool!). I guess I'm just a sucker.

06-12-2007, 10:53 AM

katgib13

Re: What's on your summer reading list?

Quote:

Originally Posted by CCL;2437654;

I have that on my list, too. I don't know why as I've found the last couple of books so aggravating (particularly the whole Ranger, Morelli, Ranger, Morelli rigamarole- pick one, you fool!). I guess I'm just a sucker.

I read them mostly to see what the hell grandma Mazur and Lula are going to do next and to see what crazy outfit Lula will be wearing! :rofl Those two characters make the books, IMO.

06-13-2007, 08:13 AM

elk

Re: What's on your summer reading list?

Quote:

Originally Posted by geek the girl;2433970;

Yep, there is a new Richard Bachman out. Or, wait, that's not entirely true. For starters, it's not exactly new and second, it's not out just yet. It will be released on June 12, though, so it's just a few days away. This one's a special treat for all of us Constant Readers out there, because Blaze dates back to Stephen King's early days as the master of horror. I remember reading about it in one of his "dear Constant Reader"-prefaces and wondering why he never published it. Right after Carrie, the publishers were all over King about what his next project would be. At the time, he had two novels in the making: Blaze and a vampire novel called Second Coming. The publishers and King opted for the vampire novel, re-named it and Blaze was shoved aside up until now. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details - I can't tell you whether Blaze was rewritten or if it's an exact replica of the story he wrote back in 1973. I'm sure the official Stephen King web site will tell you.

Thanks so much for the info, Geek. I immediately signed up at my library and am only #3 on the list, so I will look forward to that. Did I ever mention that I am in awe that you actually met Stephen King?! :bowdown

06-13-2007, 01:32 PM

PWS

Re: What's on your summer reading list?

I'm about to catch a plane so I apologize if someone already mentioned this upthread a ways...I've been away a lot already this summer and am way behind... but I just thought this was very interesting so thought I'd toss it out to all.
Some of you may have read Black Like Me...where a white man takes some pill that turns his skin dark and sees what it's like to be treated as an African American. There's a book out now called Self Made Man that is the same idea for gender...a woman who passes as a man. She's not a transsexual/gender person, just a woman who wanted to see what a man's life was really like and her thoughts on it. She infiltrates a number of different all male settings, such as a bowling team, picking up women in bars as a guy, a monastery, a "men's group", a workplace setting and visits to strip clubs, and records what she sees/hears and how she notices that she has to change to fit in. Warning though, she does have some direct quotes from men talking when they think there are no women present so the language can get R rated at times, and obviously the strip club chapter is not PG-13. But most of the book is intellectualized, not at all crude. And the author is a lesbian so there's none of that falling in love with her "subjects" that you would get in the Hollywood version!
She does become very fond of some of her subjects and is surprised by many of her findings...not what she had thought things would be like.
It was a good read I thought.

06-13-2007, 02:57 PM

JFlo

Re: What's on your summer reading list?

My list so far:

OUR LADY OF THE FOREST by David Gutterson
ALEXANDRIA PARK by Allegra Goodman
JAWS by Peter Benchley (Not taking this one w/me to Hilton Head this August!)
PAINT IT BLACK by Janet Fitch
CONFESSIONS OF AN UGLY STEPSISTER by Gregory Maguire
THE PILOT'S WIFE by Anita Shreve
A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR by John Irving
JUMPING THE QUEUE by Mary Wesley
THE REMAINS OF THE DAY by Kazuo Ishiguro
MIDDLESEX by Jeffrey Eugenides
THE LOVELY BONES by Alice Sebold

Yeah, well, we'll see just how far into the list I get.

Oh, just had to tell y'all I gave my husband my gift to him for our 10th anniversary (35 of his all time favorite books in hardback). The sweet sweet husband that he is, he cried and told me it was the most thoughtful gift he has ever received. :lovestruc